Private equity giant Blackstone buys majority stake in London technology company Cloudreach
Private equity giant Blackstone has announced a deal to acquire a majority stake in a London cloud technology company.
Cloudreach provides cloud computing products and services for companies including BP, Pearson and Hearst Corporation.
Founded in 2009, the company now has offices in seven countries and has a presence in both Europe and North America.
Read more: Boss of French business giant backs Brexiting London to retain dominance
Arma Partners, a specialist M&A firm that focuses on communications, media and technology, advised Cloudreach on the deal.
Cloudreach’s co-founder Pontus Noren will become chief executive of the company under the terms of the deal, while Dave Johnson, a senior adviser to Blackstone, will be chairman of the board.
The founders of Cloudreach are understood to have chosen Blackstone as their investor of choice because of the price offered, which has not been disclosed, as well as the way the deal is structured.
“Since our inception in 2009, we have gone on to build the leading global cloud services company that is valued by its customers for the way in which we accelerate their success with adopting cloud technologies,” Noren said.
Read more: Parkdean and NewDay deals helped private equity stage late comeback in 2016
This investment by Blackstone will allow us to continue to expand our geographic reach, our software development capabilities, and further automate and expand our managed services/ cloud operations capabilities. The focus is to enable our customers to innovate at pace and adapt their business to today’s IoT, AI and digitally driven world.
Viral Patel, a managing director at the private equity outfit, said: “By combining Blackstone’s patient capital and Cloudreach’s industry-leading services, we see a significant opportunity to ignite dramatic growth in this business in the years ahead.”